Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Diebold (De)Certification Delayed
This just in...
* * *
I made a fantastic contact today while calling people who had attended last month's town hall forum on preferential voting. Next Monday I'll be having coffee with Kevin Matlock, Executive Director of the local Republican Party. At least he claimed that title when we spoke. I think I saw him on the news recently, and I really don't doubt him. I'm just surprised that I haven't been able to find out *anything* about him searching through Google and all over the Republican website above. Anyway, it's just a little due diligence and I shall get by. We had a very cordial discussion today and he readily agreed to meet me. We established that I am non partisan and that I am interested in working toward systemic change favoring voter confidence without inherent bias. He accepted this frame as a starting point for our next conversation. I look forward to the continued construction of a bridge.
* * *
Sometime this afternoon I got a call from Kathy at the Board of Supervisors' administrative office. She confirmed the Supes had each received the letter, Diebold/OVC comparison, and copy of the Voter Confidence Resolution that I had dropped off last week. She reinforced what Supervisor Jimmy Smith told me Monday which is that Elections Clerk Carolyn Crnich is completing a budget that will soon be submitted leading to the approval of an "Elections Advisory Committee." That is the first time that specific phrase has popped up, at least for me. It seems innocuous enough. The time frame appears to be weeks. Kathy said she would call me as soon as the matter is agendized for a specific meeting date.
* * *
This morning I spoke with Humboldt County Green Party Chairman Greg Allen. He encouraged me to attend this Saturday's Green Party General Assembly (GA) at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center. The meeting starts at noon and is open to the public. Greg said the Voter Confidence Resolution would definitely get on the agenda. It is a good bet the group will move to endorse the resolution, as they did an earlier version. There is video of the presentation that lead to the endorsement. It may take awhile to download. I think it is about 10-12 minutes.
In my last entry I incorrectly referred to this video as coming from the most recent Green GA. As I now see on the Humboldt County Green Party website, there was a GA as recently as April 10. Missing from this website is any announcement of the meeting coming up this weekend. I also see no reference to the previous endorsement, nor any mention of the resolution or even a link to GuvWurld. The site needs a more attentive webmaster to keep it current. Contact Greg Allen if you can help.
1 comments
Please be advised that the May 19th VSPP meeting has been cancelled. All the agenda items for that meeting, including the Diebold system, have been tentatively rescheduled for consideration at the June 16, 2005 VSPP Meeting.That info comes courtesy of the Open Voting Consortium newsletter, and refers to the (de)certification meeting that election reformers have been planning to swarm. It also mentions a "rumor" that the delay may have come at Diebold's request. Regardless, this is somewhat of a reprieve. We may be close to getting the County Supes to create an election reform task force (see below) but we must still keep emphasizing No Deal With Diebold!
Bruce McDannold
Election Specialist: Voting Systems
* * *
I made a fantastic contact today while calling people who had attended last month's town hall forum on preferential voting. Next Monday I'll be having coffee with Kevin Matlock, Executive Director of the local Republican Party. At least he claimed that title when we spoke. I think I saw him on the news recently, and I really don't doubt him. I'm just surprised that I haven't been able to find out *anything* about him searching through Google and all over the Republican website above. Anyway, it's just a little due diligence and I shall get by. We had a very cordial discussion today and he readily agreed to meet me. We established that I am non partisan and that I am interested in working toward systemic change favoring voter confidence without inherent bias. He accepted this frame as a starting point for our next conversation. I look forward to the continued construction of a bridge.
* * *
Sometime this afternoon I got a call from Kathy at the Board of Supervisors' administrative office. She confirmed the Supes had each received the letter, Diebold/OVC comparison, and copy of the Voter Confidence Resolution that I had dropped off last week. She reinforced what Supervisor Jimmy Smith told me Monday which is that Elections Clerk Carolyn Crnich is completing a budget that will soon be submitted leading to the approval of an "Elections Advisory Committee." That is the first time that specific phrase has popped up, at least for me. It seems innocuous enough. The time frame appears to be weeks. Kathy said she would call me as soon as the matter is agendized for a specific meeting date.
* * *
This morning I spoke with Humboldt County Green Party Chairman Greg Allen. He encouraged me to attend this Saturday's Green Party General Assembly (GA) at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center. The meeting starts at noon and is open to the public. Greg said the Voter Confidence Resolution would definitely get on the agenda. It is a good bet the group will move to endorse the resolution, as they did an earlier version. There is video of the presentation that lead to the endorsement. It may take awhile to download. I think it is about 10-12 minutes.
In my last entry I incorrectly referred to this video as coming from the most recent Green GA. As I now see on the Humboldt County Green Party website, there was a GA as recently as April 10. Missing from this website is any announcement of the meeting coming up this weekend. I also see no reference to the previous endorsement, nor any mention of the resolution or even a link to GuvWurld. The site needs a more attentive webmaster to keep it current. Contact Greg Allen if you can help.
1 comments
1 Comments:
Yes, Kevin Matlock is the ED of the local Republicans, at least he used to be. I see their member list hasn't been updated as Mike Harvey is no longer the Chair of the County org. Their new Chair, as mentioned in the paper, is Lori Metheny.
By 
Fred Mangels, at
7:15 AM
